24 Disember, 2008

THE journey of an explosive pint-sized warrior from Dungun, Terengganu, captured the Malaysian cycling fraternity’s imagination this year, more than anything else.

For once, thanks mainly to Azizul Hasni Awang and his new generation of fighters, there is belief, there is confidence and Malaysia dares to dream big in cycling.

All that meant more to the sport than being indicted as one of the 19 core sports and reason to believe that more could come as the sport is one of three to receive full government backing towards the 2012 London Olympics. Azizul spoke the loudest for Malaysian cycling this year in repeating his Asian Championships keirin gold medal in Bangkok last year, then adding the 200m sprint gold to that in this year’s championships in Nara, Japan in April.

Malaysia completed a sweep of individual sprint event gold medals, when Rizal Tisin bagged his second ever Asian title by taking the 1km time trial gold medal in Nara.

That made it three years in a row that Malaysia maintained their grip on the truly Asian event — the keirin — in the continental championships, with Rizal winning it in 2006, Azizul the following two years.

That wasn’t all Azizul had to show.

At just 20-yearsold, he qualfied as part of Malaysia’s biggest ever representation in cycling at the Olympics in Beijing in August, in a squad that included Rizal, Josiah Ng and Edrus Yunus, as reserve.

And the Malaysians showed they weren’t in Beijing just to make up the numbers, particularly Azizul, who only just missed out on a place in the keirin final, but then put on an impressive show against the goliath of world sprinting — Britain’s Chris Hoy — in the 200m sprint quarterfinals.

The team sprint trio of Azizul, Josiah and Rizal too impressed in Beijing with a 44.525s national record at the Laoshan Velodrome, months after they wrote the earlier national mark of 45.511s at the same venue.

Clearly, the national sprints squad programme under Australian coach John Beasley at their Melbourne base was already beginning to pay dividends.

Not much could be said of the endurance programme under Ng Joo Ngan, who have failed miserably to produce any significant results, apart from at the Sea Games, over the past eight years at least.

The National Sports Council’s (NSC) move to take on Beasley as a director of the entire cycling programme, overseeing not just the sprints squad, but the endurance and equally struggling road programmes as well could soon see an all-around change in fortunes.

On the road, Malaysians started the UCI Asia Tour season with a bang.

More so the swashbuckling Le Tua Cycling Team, who conquered all by taking the overall win through Indonesian rider Tonton Susanto and the points classification through Anuar Manan in the Jelajah Malaysia in January, then came within a whisker of creating history in Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) a month later.

Le Tua’s Anuar swept three stage wins en route to his second successive points classification win the the Jelajah Malaysia, before almost taking an historic first ever Malaysian stage win in LTdL, when he finished second behind Seoul City’s Lee Won Jae in Stage Three of the race.

Anuar was to add the points classification in the Tour de East Java in Indonesia in April and the Tour of Indonesia last month to his collection of classification wins this year.

But Anuar wasn’t the only one who moved a notch further on the road.

Loh Sea Keong was another who made his mark this year, riding for the China-registered Trek-Marco Polo team. After years of working as a ‘domestique’, serving the bigger riders in the team, Sea Keong registered his first ever international stage win in the Tour of Thailand in October.

Nor Rizuan Zainal and the seasoned Ahmad Fallanie Ali both also got their names on the list of international winners with stage wins in the Tour of Indonesia, while Akmal Amrun made his personal history by winning the final stage of the Tour of Hong Kong-Shanghai.

After a long wait, the first ever UCI-recognised national road championships was also held this year, with Police’s Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi taking the honour of being the country’s first ever national champion.

Locally, the big bang was in the Malaysia Games in July, where hosts Terengganu, for long the cycling hotbed of the country, stamped their mark by taking a whopping nine gold medals.

Organisationally, LTdL’s 13th edition went about with fewer complications than previously, but the government’s support seems to be dwindling by the year and the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) must now look to operate the race independently.

Just like Jelajah Malaysia, one would have imagined. But it wasn’t the case as the country’s oldest race, well revived in the past two editions, was found without a title sponsor for next year’s edition, forcing organisers 10-Speed Sdn Berhad to postpone the race from January to April.

On the development front, the lack of really strong juniors must be ringing some alarm bells.

When in the earlier part of the decade, the juniors were stringing together results in the Asian Junior Championsvhips, this year they only delivered two bronze medals.

But the SportExcel National Junior Circuit also saw rapid growth, particularly in its track events, which has grown to now feature more than 100 riders in every round.

The core sports programme has also allowed cycling to really be expanded, with 14 centres of excellence and three regional back-up centres now in full flight.

All that remains now is for the Education Ministry to do its part and include cycling under the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) calendar, something which has been overlooked for far too long.

But having said that, from the grassroots right up to the country’s biggest race — LTdL — it goes to show that the sport is far from independent, as all programmes run are funded by the government, bar the SportExcel National Junior Circuit.

Even at state level, programmes run by the respective bodies are too heavily reliant on state government funds and depend solely on injections under the biennial Malaysia Games programmes to get by.

And the MNCF itself is far from showing any innovation towards promoting the sport as an industry or moving towards commercialisation, something that grows ever more vital in this day and age.

But all that lacked in 2008 must surely have been made up for by the cyclists on the international stage. The promise of not just Azizul or Rizal, but a string of super promising riders coming of age in the next few years is very evident.

It is just a matter of improving, while keeping all the groundwork that’s been laid down together.

IT isn't about getting there, but about staying at the top when you get there.

And that is exactly what runs through the mind of new World No 1 keirin rider Azizul Hasni Awang after being confirmed at those heights in the latest world rankings released on Monday.

"Now, it is about maintaining that position and trying to get hold of the World Cup leader's jersey, which is something difficult, given our programme, but achievable. That is my target," said Azizul, when contacted in Melbourne yesterday.

Azizul sits atop the ranking with 570 points, 50 more than Francois Pervis of France, while triple Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy of Britain is third, yet to start his new season. Pervis is the current UCI World Cup keirin leader's jersey holder.

The pint-sized Azizul is also the first Malaysian since Josiah Ng in 2005 to attain World No 1 status in the keirin.

That comes thanks to the reigning Asian keirin champion's explosive gold medal feat in Round Two of the UCI World Cup in Melbourne on Nov 20-22, and a series of wins in UCI graded grand prix events in Australia.

The national track sprints squad under Australian coach John Beasley will sit out the third round of the World Cup in Cali, Colombia this weekend, continuing their season with the fourth round in Beijing on Jan 16-18.

"Since we're missing the Cali round, my eyes are now fully on Beijing. Being World No 1 inspires me and I want to take that World Cup leader's jersey from Pervis," said Azizul.

"I think now, we can tell all Malaysians that they can start believing that we can achieve something, we can be right at the top. But this is not the climax yet. Our main goal is the World Championships."

The squad go to the New Zealand GP tomorrow and return to Melbourne for leg four of the Revolution series, before a final tune-up in Tasmania prior to heading to Beijing next month.

03 Disember, 2008

THE biggest turnout yet in the series at the third leg of the SportExcel National Junior Circuit at the Kuala Lumpur Velodrome on Sunday did serve to raise some questions, but they were somewhat quashed by a little known Terengganu rider.

Just when the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) was eyeing improvements in equipment for the track sector of their regional and state centres, a scintillating show by Terengganu youngster Nur Amirull Fakhruddin Mazuki stated that wasn't entirely necessary.

MNCF vice president Maniam Manikkam said the concern now is the technical and equipment aspects of development, which as of now isn't as far reaching as the road programme.

"Even district associations like the Dungun CA (DDCA) and our regional centres are starting to have bigger pools of young riders, but doing it for track cycling is going to be tricky," said Maniam.

"Equipment must be available to the riders. Not all teams have track bicycles. Most smaller associations have to borrow the National Sports Council's (NSC) bikes to race, so we must wonder what they do for training," said Maniam.

A proposal for all state centres of excellence to be supplied with at least three more track bicycles will be made by the MNCF, Maniam said.

"We will make the request to the NSC. Whether this happens depends on the budget they can make available," he added.

On track over the weekend, Terengganu's new find, 15-year-old Amirull showed that a little more heart and passion too could go a long way with his sweep of three gold medals.

Training without the use of a velodrome and limited use of a track bicycle, Amirull clocked a reasonably fast 37s flat to bag the Under-16 500m time trial.

If that wasn't enough, Amirull rode at a 48kph average speed to bag the scratch race, then took 11 of the 33 intermediate sprint points on offer to win the points race.

Amirull overcame challengers from the NSC, Bandar Penawar Sports School (BPSS) and Regional Back-up Centres (RBC), who were far better equipped than himself, in all three of his gold medal events.

Track

Track - Intro

"Sprint" disciplines
Sprint: A race where tactics are very important. After a selection over 200 m. with a fliying start, the riders race one another to qualify over 2 or 3 laps, depending on the length of the track. The losers may still qualify. From the quarter finals onwards, the riders race against one another over two legs. Sometimes we see track stands session, where the idea is to get your rival to make the pace, which puts him at a disadvantage when it comes to the explosion into the final sprint.
Team sprint: This spectacular event is run with teams of 3 riders, over 3 laps of the track. Each rider does a lap before handing over. The last rider finishes alone. At the World Championships, the eight teams with the best times qualify ; four of them are eliminated after head-to-head races. Finally the two teams with the best times race off to decide the winner.
Kilometre (500 m for women): A long sprint. This is an individual time trial, from a standing start. The rider credited with the best time is decided the winner.
Keirin: In this event from Japan, 6 to 8 riders square up against one another in a sprint of from 600 to 700 m. held after riding for around 1400 m. behind a trainer on a moped, gradually increasing in speed from 30 to 50 km/h.
"Endurance" disciplines
Individual pursuit: What a race ! Two riders compete over a fixed distance (Men : 4 km, women : 3 km) They start from two opposite points on the track. The winner is the rider who catches up with his rival or who records the best time.
Team pursuit: A feast for the eyes. Two teams of 4 riders compete over a distance of 4 km. They start from two opposites points of the track. The winner is the team which catches up with its rival or records the best time.
Points race: For sprinters who know how to marshal their resources. This is a speciality where the final ranking depends on the number of points won and accumulated by 20 to 30 riders during sprints (in all 10 laps of 250 m track) and according to the laps won. It is run over 30 km for men and 25 km for women.
Madison: This requires a perfect understanding. The event is between teams of two riders with intermediate sprints. The ranking is drawn up on distance and the points won by the riders. With a maximum of 18 teams, generally run over 50 km, this is a spectacular event. The tea members can take over from each other as and when they like, by touching hands or cycling shorts. While one of the riders is in the race, the other one goes round at slower speed.
Scratch: Scratch is an individual race over a set distance (15 km for men, 10 km for women). The number of participants is limited to 24. There is

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